What to Expect

• Occasional Apple Macintosh and iMac sightings, plus look for Mephisto shoes on Mulder's feet.
• Robert Patrick will get third (second w/o Mulder) billing in the opening credits. There are two new opening sequences this season (with and without Mulder), and each has both a shortened and a normal version like the original sequence. With Mulder: "What we know and love at the beginning and then [it changes] when the badges come up. New photos for Mulder & Scully, plus a Doggett badge. We then see a fetus, Mulder falling into the eye from the end of the credits, only the eye is now Scully's." Without Mulder: Same as above except no Mulder photo, and a scene from "Patience" instead of the one from "Squeeze."
• There will be 21 episodes.
• There will be 9 mythology episodes.
• Kim Manners will direct 7 episodes; Chris Carter will direct 1.
• Duchovny will be in 12 of the 21 episodes (the first 2, last 9, and 1 other in between), 6 of which will be entire episodes/leading roles.
• Doggett will be in the entire season, even after Mulder returns. Scully will also be in the entire season, but she will be the focus of only a few episodes (GA needs time with her daughter Piper).
• CC: "We're going to play with [the pregnancy/'all things'] storyline this year actually and find out what exactly happened.... This is primetime. You can't consummate a relationship."
• CC: "I think we're going to look at mythological and perhaps fantasy and magic realism in ways we hadn't really explored before. There are other areas I think the show can expand into beautifully.... I think [the abduction] will certainly throw an emphasis on Scully. I think we'll get to explore the paranormal in a way we haven't before. I think you got a hint of that in Gillian's episode, 'all things.'"
• We will learn more and get more of an explanation of Skinner's nanorobots. The storyline will be continued and, we can presume, resolved. Frank Spotnitz & Chris Carter confirm this.
• Krycek, Skinner, and the other supporting characters will have larger roles.
• CC: "This season we'll return to The X-Files' roots of darker, scarier episodes. There will not be as many funny episodes as we have had the past couple of seasons."
• FS: "I don't want to spoil anything for anybody, but I think you're likely to see more of [Mulder] toward the end of the year than the beginning of the year.... [On the other hand,] he'll never be completely absent from the show. That's not to say he's going to be in every episode because he's not--he's not going to be in quite a few--but his presence will be there even when Mulder's not."
• CC dropped (unintentionally?) this: Mulder believes that Samantha "will be perhaps returned from the starlight people."
• CC: "We just won't be doing those big, slapstick-y, slaphappy episodes."
• CC: "We really hinted at an Area 51-like base in the 'Deep Throat' episode, which is the first one past the pilot. I don't know if we'll go back to that base particularly, but we may actually explore that area because we're actually back in UFO territory and alien territory with the abduction of Mulder."
• CC: "...You'll see how [Mulder being in standalone episodes] works. Hopefully, you'll think it's very clever of us." Hmm....
• FS: "For seven years Chris had an end to the story in mind and he just couldn't tell that story as it turned out. We played it out differently than he ever imagined we would." Will the original ending be used this season?
• CC: "We will explore a lot of what I would consider textbook alien-abduction material."
• FS: "...[The] last episode will need to restate [the] answers in a more explicit way than people may have perceived them before." And: "When the last show of the series does come, what I think is that somebody ought to do a two-hour special, whenever the series ends, and talk about the mythology of the show, and sort of remind people of what they've seen and what's been answered and what hasn't, because very few people really have it in their heads; the storyline is so complicated and it's been going on for so long. I think people need to take notes to really have it all clear!"
• CC wrote or rewrote 6 of the first 10 episodes.
• CC on what questions are left: "What the aliens are up to, what their ultimate purpose is, when they're coming, and what they're doing now that the conspiracy has broken down. What are their alliances? Is there any involvement with them by humans? Also, what is this other race of aliens [i.e., the renegades with the sewn-up eyes and mouths] up to, and what is their connection with the grays [the dominant alien faction]?"
• FS on Samantha: "I don't think as long as Mulder is in the series that you can be truly done with her." CC: "I think it's been pretty much resolved."
• CC on Krycek and Marita: "They're free agents now, and they're not necessarily best friends. [But] I think, depending upon what happens with Cigarette-Smoking Man, they will become, in a way, the prime movers in the--maybe--reestablishment of a conspiracy." FS: They promise to be a lot more exciting than the Syndicate. "It's a sexier dynamic because these are young, attractive, vital, dangerous people. We expect to use that to the hilt." Guess not.
• CC on the colonization: "Well, you're envisioning Independence Day; I'm envisioning something different...." Which is? "I think you'll have to wait...until season 16."
• The pregnancy won't be addressed every episode, at least until the 2nd half of the season.
• From FS: A lot more will be learned about Mulder later this season and in the premiere episodes; this season will show more emotional sides to Scully; and there will be more about alien DNA in humans toward the end of the season (not).
• CC: "Well, there was an explanation but you didn't actually see [Spender's] death, but his father actually did him in. And uh...he'll be back but it will be in flashback, but he will play a part." Guess not.
• "Carter had planned to do less mythology episodes this season, but now he realizes that any show that has Mulder in it 'becomes a kind of mythology episode.'"
• In the second half of the season Krycek will be back big-time.
• Scully gives birth in the finale.
• FS: "I think this is going to be a season with more than one cliffhanger in it, and we're going to use those cliffhangers as opportunities to expand or contract time as need be."
• FS: "The finale for this season will be the finale for the eight years of the show. The ninth season, if there is one, will be a whole new ballgame."
• FS: "Anything is possible. You might see four, three, who knows how many agents will be around if the show continues next year. Whatever happens--whether Mulder appears next season or not--something is coming to an end at the end of this season. There's the Mulder abduction storyline, which gets resolved, and there's also the Scully pregnancy storyline that gets resolved. And I think a big chapter is going to close in those final two episodes. And the series will be different, whoever comes back for it--if there is another year. We're still working out what that final story is, but there are a couple of elements that we know are going to be in there. And those two elements close the chapter."
• CC: The finale "will be a cliffhanger either for next season, if we return, or for the movie." Also the delivery of Scully's baby will be "a subject of serious consequence."

To Be Addressed

• Mulder's abduction and return.
• Scully's baby and how she got pregnant.
• The Mulder/Scully and Scully/Doggett relationships.
• Colonization.
• Skinner's nano-problem.
• More on Samantha: "...We can still investigate that, to an extent, and we do, actually, next season to some degree" (from CC).

New/Returning Characters

• Special Agent John Doggett (previously Agent White), Scully's new partner: "This guy is the consummate insider. He's a member of the FBI fraternity, a textbook guy.... So when Mulder comes back to the show, it will be--that will be the interesting dynamic. How does it work? How does it work between them? I don't know necessarily that it's going to be competitive. In fact, it might be a symbiotic relationship. These are things we will have to explore and certainly, we look forward to exploring Scully and Doggett through the first half of the season," said CC. FS: Doggett is "a self-made man who has risen up and become a very good, highly regarded FBI agent. And so it's much more of a criminal approach to the X-files than a scientific one."
• Another new character, Special Agent Monica Reyes (previously Agent Karen Miller and Agent Jane Jones, played by Annabeth Gish): attractive, late 20s to early 30s, and spiritual, making her more open to the paranormal--but still very grounded. She is "brought to the team by Agent John Doggett from the New Orleans office, where she has been working a ritualistic crime detail dealing with reports of satanic cults. ...[She] has a personal history with Doggett, who brings her in to help [find] Mulder." Also "Reyes smiles, laughs, and is a little off-center; there's a slightly neurotic quality to her."
• Skinner, who will have an expanded role this season. But, CC won't expand it such that he will have an uncharacteristically large role.
• The Lone Gunmen.
• Krycek--we'll see more of him this season after Christmas.
• The Bounty Hunter in the premiere episodes.
• Margaret Scully.
• Gibson Praise!
• Kersh!
• Jeremiah Smith.
• Teresa Hoese and Billy Miles plus Richie and Gary.
• Chuck Burks!

November 5, 2000 and June 10, 2001 8X01: "Within" (a.k.a. "Third Party")

• Season premiere, part 2 of 3. Mythology. Written by Chris Carter, directed by Kim Manners.
• Mulder (in newly filmed scenes!), the Lone Gunmen, Skinner, Kersh (now deputy director!), Doggett, Margaret Scully's voice (!), and Gibson are in it.
• Gibson goes to a school for the deaf. Everyone is after him, it seems. We will also meet his teacher (cut), a fellow student (13-year-old Roque Arellaga--cut), and Mulder's doctor, Beth Siegler, from after the brain condition (she was cut from the script too!). Scully encounters a startled jogger with his dog during a chase, and some scenes will take place at Last Chance Burgers. (Both also cut.)
• Doggett is a blue-collar ex-Marine and former NYPD officer "man's man" who only believes something when he sees or experiences it.
• Takes place in fictional Flemingtown, Arizona. Skinner and the Gunmen work together. The teaser is a Scully dream about Mulder's situation, then she wakes up. In one scene she falls asleep in Mulder's bed; in another she throws up.
• "All parties are warned that if the words 'alien abduction' are mentioned in anyone's reports, their jobs are in jeopardy."
• There will be helicopter scenes.
• CC: "We'll find [Gibson] in a very unlikely place, but a place that ultimately makes sense. We're going to explore him and how he came to be."
• Takes place 1 day after "Requiem." Doggett comes face-to-face with Mulder. RP: "I do run into Mulder, and it's a confrontation. I have a gun, and I basically tell him I'm going to shoot unless he does what I say. He does--and then he does something un-fucking-believable."

November 12, 2000 8X02: "Without"

• Mythology, part 3 of 3. Written by Chris Carter, directed by Kim Manners.
• The teaser is a Scully monologue.
• Mulder, Skinner, Kersh, Doggett, the Bounty Hunter, Gibson, the principal of Gibson's school, and most of the other characters from part 2 are in it.
• Doggett is assigned to the X-files (not by his or Scully's choice); he seems to like Scully. Scully and Skinner pull their guns on each other; Kersh "sees [Doggett] as possible future competition and wants to discredit him by placing him in an untenable position: in charge of the search for the missing Fox Mulder."
• Mulder is "back," and he falls off a 300-foot cliff.

December 10, 2000 8X03: "Redrum"

• Teleplay by Steven Maeda, story by Steven Maeda and Daniel Arkin, directed by Peter Markle. Title comes from The Shining, "murder" spelled backwards.
• Involves a federal prosecutor in Baltimore who finds himself on trial for the murder of his wife.
• "The federal prosecutor on trial is actually an old friend of John Doggett's. He of course denies killing his wife. As for the supernatural element--stop reading now if you don't want to know--Martin Wells is moving backwards in time. Sort of like Merlin from Sword in the Stone. Today is Thursday, tomorrow for him would be Wednesday, etc. He doesn't remember anything that to everyone else happened previously because he hasn't lived it yet. Martin is very interested in discussing this with Scully. I'm pretty sure the episode follows Martin's timeline. Meaning we experience the days backwards like he does. It sounds great and you can just imagine how the inmates feel about having the very prosecutor who put them away in the same prison with them."
• "Martin is killed in the teaser. The X-file is that he then starts living his life backwards one day at a time as he tries to prove he was framed and avoid his untimely end."
• The ep is mostly from Martin's POV. May be Scully-lite. Also we see Doggett's house.

November 19, 2000 8X04: "Patience"

• Written and directed by Chris Carter.
• "Takes place in a small Ohio town and involves a sexist sheriff who resents Scully and her authority.... It seems to deal with a highly controversial case from 40 years ago in [the] town. One very interesting character is a 'human bat'!!"
• The characters include Detective Abbott, the sheriff; Myron Stefaniuk, who doesn't want to be bothered (for a reason); and the sheriff's deputy, who is angered when Scully's investigation somehow leads to Abbott's death.
• "Strange bites mark the next case for Scully and Doggett in Cockrill County, Ohio."
• "While investigating the bizarre case, Scully's 'out-there theories' are not welcomed by the sheriff's deputy. Scent and animal tracking-type marking plays an interesting role in the casefile."
• "The creature was captured 44 years ago and the warden describes him as the model prisoner. (I guess I shouldn't say him. As Scully says, 'I never said you're looking for a man.') Anyway they say 'Bird Man of Alcatraz' isn't just interested in bats, he is a bat. He spends every waking minute stuffed into the prison window. All they see is a big eye. He doesn't eat prison food but they occasionally find rat bones on the floor although no one ever sees him leave the window. When the warden tries to show him to Scully and Doggett, he's not there. He's escaped." (This was cut.)

November 26, 2000 8X05: "Roadrunners"

• Written by Vince Gilligan, directed by Rod Hardy (High Noon remake).
• Takes place in a small Utah town. Characters include Hank (a weary hitchhiker traveling across the country), Mr. Milsap (leader of a cult and owner of a run-down boarding house), and an FBI agent from the Salt Lake City field office who investigates Scully's disappearance!
• "Scully's stuck in a Utah one-horse town with a cult and a slug. Confused?"
• "Scully is investigating the stoning death of a person in the middle of nowhere, Utah while Doggett is back in D.C. While there she runs into an odd bunch of folks living in a ghost town who are very interested in her skills as a medical doctor."
• "It's kind of a cross between 'Ice' and 'Our Town.' 'Our Town' because everyone in the town is creepy and united in some sick theory. 'Ice' because they're in a secluded place with a limited amount of people and because they also put worm-type creatures into people's bodies."

December 3, 2000 8X06: "Invocation"

• Written by David Amann, directed by Richard Compton.
• "A child's abduction in Dexter, [Oklahoma] continues to haunt his family."
• "The family is the Underwoods. Billy, 7, was abducted 10 years ago and returns without having aged and seems creepy or evil. Lisa, his mother, was on the swing set with Billy when he disappeared from it. She was haunted by the occurrence and doesn't care that he came back unchanged; she is just happy that he's back at all. Josh, Billy's 10-year-old brother, doesn't trust him after his return. And Doug is the father, who also distrusts him."

December 17, 2000 8X07: "Via Negativa"

• Written by Frank Spotnitz, directed by Tony Wharmby.
• Skinner, Kersh, and the Lone Gunmen are in it. Title means "By Way of Negation" in Latin. "The...phrase refers to the darkest path taken en route to enlightenment."
• "Has to do with a cult called the Ibogan Temple Cult that believe that the path of darkness leads to a higher plane of being. The FBI has this cult under surveillance."
• "The presence of Kersh and Skinner is explained by the fact that two victims of the MOTW who appear in the teaser are FBI agents who were already on the case. The big brass tends to sit up and take notice when their own are killed...."
• There is lots of Doggett development in this episode. Doggett gets nightmares, and dreams are an important part of the story. Scully is away for most of the episode. The cult believes in the third eye philosophy, and this is shown literally!

February 18, 2001 8X08: "Per Manum"

• Written by Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz, directed by Kim Manners. Mythology. Title means "By Hand" in Latin.
• "The story centers around Duffy Haskell, an ex-military man who goes to Scully & Doggett to investigate his wife's death during childbirth. They discover he is the president of the Ohio Mutual UFO Network and that he wrote threatening letters to Mulder. This man believes that his wife was impregnated by aliens--she was a multiple abductee. Also, Scully finds out that her trusted obstetrician is in on a conspiracy. The casting breakdown states--NOT MY WORDS!--that Scully has been consulting him for the past year and that he was helping her to conceive--that's what the breakdown says."
• "Scully, Skinner, and Doggett have a clandestine, nighttime meeting in a Washington, D.C. deli/diner.... Doggett arrives driving a silver Ford F-150 with a double cab.... In a sequence outside the same restaurant, I would guess it's when they're all leaving, Doggett has a mild confrontation with Scully outside by the car with Skinner seeming to back her up.... A woman was waiting for Scully in her car all along, and when we saw her on set and out of the car, she was wearing a pregnant lady costume...."
• Mulder is briefly in this episode in flashback. Mark Snow is in it too: "I play a doctor, and I don't say anything and I'm not on the screen too long, but it was a fun moment. Kim Manners, the director, called up and said, 'Look, get your ass over here, I want to have you in this show!' And I said 'Okay!' It was one of those night shoots, you get there at 8 and you leave at 5 in the morning."
• "Scully is forced to question whether she should reveal the secret of her pregnancy to Doggett. Clues to the identity of who--or what--is the father of Scully's baby may be revealed."

January 7, 2001 8X09: "Surekill"

• Written by Greg Walker, directed by Terrence O'Hara.
• From Frank Spotnitz: the episode is about "a woman who is saved from a murder and believes she has a guardian angel who's watching over her shoulder protecting her. But she's wrong. It's not what it seems to be at all." From an old draft?
• "Plot centers around two spooky brothers who run an extermination company." One has some sort of special eyesight.
• "Folks are being shot through walls with no means of seeing the victims (for instance, a shot fired from a rooftop goes through an attic and vents to kill a man). And it appears that a brother-run exterminator company in Worcester, Mass. is killing rats of more than the rodent variety."
• It's about "two brothers...one sees through things...one brother is not too kind, you could say, and is the brains behind the duo. The other, the big kind one, is the one who sees. They use it for good...in an odd way...and for bad."

January 14, 2001 8X10: "Salvage"

• Written by Jeffrey Bell, directed by Rod Hardy.
• From Frank Spotnitz: the episode is about "a man who is seemingly indestructible."
• "It takes place in Muncie[, Indiana]...."
• RP: "It involves a man who's been exposed to some 'smart' metal. We're basically dealing with a metal man."
• "I think...it's about a man who dies but is somehow brought back as he slowly turns into Metal!Man. I know that's vague, but I haven't gotten those key explanations yet. I do know it has something to do with Southside Salvage.... But, I haven't quite figured out the connection. But, Metal!Man is Ray and is slowly turning into this monster. If I was a bettin' woman, I would say it has the feel of a Frankenstein...in the Mary Shelley sense. The sadness of the creation...the loneliness...and the apparent horror that comes with it. A very serious ep."

February 4, 2001 8X11: "The Gift"

• Written by Frank Spotnitz, directed by Kim Manners.
• "The mythology-laced episode follows Doggett's intensive pursuit into the truth behind Mulder's disappearance. He gets a helping hand from Skinner and the Lone Gunmen. The episode tracks a mysterious creature with unique capabilities in Squamash, Pennsylvania."
• "This is the episode that seems to explain the car rental receipts, and they were not for Raleigh. ...Doggett is sent out to investigate an Indian folklore soul-eater beast that it appears Mulder was investigating in the spring. Mulder does appear in this episode in flashbacks to what he was doing during that trip. Skinner is featured prominently in this episode as well."
• "From what is written, and that is an early draft, it does seem this episode brings back Doggett's promise to Scully to find Mulder; whether he's successful or not is unknown at this time. Through the course of what is written it is not crystal-clear, but it seems Doggett believes Mulder shot (and killed?) a transient soul-eater in May 2000. It also seems that if he did so, he did so to protect someone. There are flashbacks of Mulder written; one is of Mulder questioning Marie and Paul Hangemuhl. Marie had gone missing for a few days and Mulder tries to figure it out. Doggett questions both in present day as well. Sheriff Frey is also present in both flashback and present day. At one point the Sheriff says his first name is Kurt.... None of the episode that I have information on contains Scully or any scene with Mulder and Scully in the present or flashback. Skinner is featured in this episode.... It is also interesting to note that it seems Mulder didn't mention this case in any of his files."
• "The teaser for ep 11 starts out with a MAN shooting at a monster in a house. The camera does not show the face of the MAN. The MAN returns to his car, and it turns out that it is MULDER! According to the script 'tears shine in his eyes.' This is a flashback to last year. Apparently the trips to Raleigh [mentioned in 'Within'] were actually trips to PA, where Mulder was investigating an Indian folk legend [the soul-eater]. Scully is not in the ep very much. She is apparently bedridden [cut]. There is no more info on that though. Doggett & Skinner go to investigate the monster. The sheriff tells them that Mulder was there last year, and that [Mulder] was a nutcase. That [Mulder] believed an ancient Indian legend ate a woman. Doggett & Skinner then proceed to go after the monster while the whole town seems to be keeping something from them. In one scene the monster vomits up a 'new' person."

January 21, 2001 8X12: "Badlaa"

• Written by John Shiban, directed by Tony Wharmby. Title means "Revenge" or "Retaliation" in Urdu.
• "I'm not making this up. This is a monster-of-the-week episode that has to do with a beggar from India with no legs who gets around on a squeaky cart and has powers to alter perception."
• "There's a karmic twist to this murder mystery, with a climax that puts Scully to a real test. The victim is an importer/exporter from Minnesota found in a D.C. hotel room, twenty minutes after checking in following a flight from India. Despite much blood, the cause of death is unknown. Doggett finds fingerprints in the room suggesting a child was there. But what Scully finds in her autopsy suggests more: something appears to have exited the man's body--which she determines was in India at the time of death. The ensuing investigation brings the agents to Mulder's consultant Chuck Burks, whose prognosis is that the suspect is virtually unstoppable."

February 11, 2001 8X13: "Medusa"

• Written by Frank Spotnitz, directed by Richard Compton.
• "An organism that consumes flesh is in the tunnels of the Boston subway system. Scully & Doggett investigate along with the CDC."
• "I just received some [info] for 8X13 (still untitled), which does indeed appear to take place almost entirely in the tunnels of the Boston T system. It looks like a standard MOTW, involving some kind of flesh-eating algae that has seeped into the tunnels from the Boston Bay because of the big dig--the algae gets on people and then is killed by a chemical reaction triggered by human sweat, which in turn causes some byproduct of the algae to consume itself and anything it's touching (including the human flesh). At one point, Doggett gets trapped down there while Scully's up above trying to figure out how to help him and the others he's with. It looks like there are at least a couple of heavy gore scenes with flesh burned away from someone's body down to a 'bloody bone.' Yuck. Looks like it might be a good ep--though what I have of it reads a little like 'Darkness Falls' meets the Flukeman's sewer."
• "The most interesting thing I see is that Scully is still calling Doggett 'Agent Doggett' or just 'Agent.' ...There's also a good line where a nonbeliever cop asks Doggett what a 'real cop' like him is doing on the X-files and dismisses what he's hearing from D&S as 'paranormal mumbojumbo,' and Doggett later tells him that he's been on TXF for 3 months now, 'and I can tell you this much. You'd be wise to put your faith in Agent Scully, just like I am.'"

February 25, 2001 8X14: "This is Not Happening"

• Written by Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz, directed by Kim Manners. Mythology, part 1 of 3.
• "...A new female FBI agent character is planned to be introduced. She is in her '30s and attractive'--it's been made clear that the character is not meant to replace Gillian."
• "The X-Files is casting for an 'Agent Karen Miller [now Monica Reyes]' for episode 14. She's described in the breakdowns as 'attractive,' late 20s to early 30s, and the breakdown says she's spiritual, and 'this may make her more open to the paranormal,' but she's still very grounded. Strange description maybe, but that was the gist of it. Don't know if this is the new female agent or not. Reports say the part is listed as 'Guest Star' rather than as 'Recurring' or 'Lead.'"
• "Past characters return while new ones debut...."
• "Scully, Doggett, and Skinner are in a hospital in Helena, Montana. They have gone there to see Teresa Hoese, who was 'returned' there 'hanging onto life by a thread.' When they go in with a doctor to see her, she is in very bad shape. The doctor tells them he hasn't seen this level of mistreatment in 12 years, and he believes someone was experimenting on her, possibly torturing her and trying to mutilate her. The script mentions that there's damage to her soft palate, her chest has been cut open and resealed, and organ tissue has been scooped away. (I noted that what's described in the script is exactly what we saw happening to Mulder in W/W.) [Cut:] All this eventually seems to be too upsetting or disturbing for Doggett, who leaves the room without a word. When Scully follows him out into the hallway, he's getting a drink and putting water on his face. She tells him, 'As upsetting as this is, I think there's reason for hope here.' [Not cut:] Later, the doctor apparently is revealed to either be a bad guy, or it looks like the ABH may be impersonating him because he's arranging to have Teresa transferred to another facility even though her condition is very bad."
• This is the first episode with Agent Reyes. Mulder returns in this episode! So do Richie & Gary and Jeremiah Smith.

April 1, 2001 8X15: "DeadAlive"

• Written by Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz, directed by Tony Wharmby. Mythology, part 2 of 3.
• Absalom, Ma Scully, Billy Miles, Krycek, the Lone Gunmen, Kersh, and Skinner are in it.
• Skinner's having nano-problems again.

April 29, 2001 8X16: "Vienen"

• Written by Steven Maeda, directed by Rod Hardy. Mythology. Title means "They Come" in Spanish.
• CC: "I know we have scouted this year something we've never scouted before but talked about. We scouted an offshore oil rig and talked about building an episode around that."
• We're back to the old mythology, with colonization and the black oil. Kersh, Skinner, and of course Mulder and Doggett are in it along with Scully, who is "well into her third trimester."
• "According to the direction of one scene 'Scully and Mulder lock eyes and from his look he seems to be enjoying his role as agent provocateur. But Scully isn't necessarily humored sensing Agent Doggett's state of mind as he follows Mulder.' Mulder is on an 'oil case' seemingly investigating the black oil. Scully, Doggett and Kersh meet with Mr. Ortega, the oil executive, and Kersh is angered by Mulder's rush to action against Ortega. Mulder protests that the case is an X-file and Kersh replies that he's sending someone from the X-files to investigate. Mulder is concerned that Scully shouldn't be sent out to an oil rig 150 miles at sea in her (pregnant) condition. Kersh, of course, wasn't sending Scully but rather Doggett. Doggett can't help but 'smirk' at this. Apparently Mulder goes to the rig w/ Doggett anyway. M/S talk via radio. Doggett informs Mulder that he [Doggett] is in charge on the rig. Mulder encourages him to take charge then. Skinner is in the episode and in a conversation between Skinner and Scully, Scully mentions that something related to the black oil confirms Mulder's worst fears."
• "There's a death on a U.S. oil rig in the gulf of a Mexican national [sic]. ...Kersh sends Doggett to investigate [and] Mulder catches his own ride and beats him there. Doggett is less than pleased. Scully is back at FBI central with Skinner covering for her with Kersh while she works the black oil angle."

April 22, 2001 8X17: "Empedocles"

• Written by Greg Walker, directed by Barry K. Thomas. Title dictionary definition: "Greek philosopher & statesman; disciple of Parmenides; proposed that physical world was comprised of four elements; reputed founder of rhetoric."
• "Agent Reyes is in it again. She's called in by the New Orleans PD on a case that looks like satanic ritual killings. From what I gather the X-file itself is some sort of possession with an entity moving between bodies."
• "I'm not sure what the X-file is in this ep, but it seems to involve people seeing things in slow motion a lot. In the teaser, a wimpy guy who's just been fired witnesses a car accident where a burning man seems to rise up out of one of the cars and enter wimpy guy's body. Wimpy guy, blank stare and all, then goes up and kills his supervisor and some hapless person from Human Resources."
• "Who is the FBI agent with paranormal experience that the police call in to look at the carnage? Monica Reyes. They set it up to make us expect Mulder [cut], but she walks in and spends a good part of her scene fiddling with nicotine gum. She's described as having an attitude which 'as we've come to expect, is characteristically sunny.' Reyes later makes a cell phone call to Mulder while he's got his mind on other things. He doesn't seem to know her and is 'annoyed' by the call. She tells him they've never met, at least not 'since he's been alive.' She's looking for help on the case, but Mulder brushes her off and tells her he can't help her 'for so many reasons,' and tells her she should talk to Doggett 'at the X-files.' Interestingly, she says she can't do that. Hmmmmm. Doggett's standing next to Mulder at the time."
• "There's also an odd reference (for which I don't have any context) to Reyes sensing an 'unspoken connection' that Mulder has to Doggett." (?)
• Reyes approaches Mulder about the unsolved case of Doggett's dead son Luke.

April 8, 2001 8X18: "Three Words"

• Written by Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz, directed by Tony Wharmby. Mythology, part 3 of 3.
• "...The teaser features a man storming the White House and being mysteriously shot as he's screaming that he needs to tell the President that aliens are taking over the United States. The guards wrestling him to the ground are taken aback by the fact that he's been shot, so the implication is that someone other than the White House guards did him in. In his dead hand, he's clutching a CD with the words 'Fight the Future' written on it."
• The man is a census worker. Absalom, Kersh, the Lone Gunmen, Knowle Rohrer, and Skinner are also back.

May 6, 2001 8X19: "Alone" (a.k.a. "A Dream Whose Sleep...")

• Written and directed by Frank Spotnitz.
• "LEYLA HARRISON--Female, late 20s to early 30s, open ethnicity. A cute, newly appointed agent to an X-files case to partner with Agent Doggett. She began as an accountant for the Bureau, and always had the dream of becoming an agent assigned to the X-files. She is eager and enthusiastic about the position, but her inexperience and ineptitude are frustrating to Doggett although, always the gentleman, he treats her like a gentleman should. GUEST STAR."
• "I'm not sure what to make of all this, but she gives Doggett the Apollo 11 medallion Mulder gave her in 'Tempus Fugit'/'Max,' telling him she thinks that he should have it.... The 'monster' is some sort of a black, slick-skinned reptilian thing with a long tail that spits something on people. The reason Doggett is working with Agent Harrison is Scully is going on maternity leave this episode. Agent Harrison has obviously done a good job of studying Mulder and Scully's exploits because she gets real excited about it being an X-file they are investigating. When she and Doggett find some slime she suggests it might be bile from a liver-eating mutant or possibly the remains of a molting alien.... She's worked in accounting all these years processing Mulder and Scully's expense reports and asks to be assigned. She even gets to have the continuity lines while investigating the case."
• "When [Doggett and Harrison] go out on an X-file that becomes life-threatening, Mulder and Scully are pressed into service even though it's not their assignment anymore."

May 13, 2001 8X20: "Essence"

• Written by Chris Carter, directed by Kim Manners. Mythology, part 1 of 2.
• Krycek, Drs. Parenti & Lev, Reyes, Skinner, and Agent Crane are in it. Lizzy Gill, Scully's "helper," is a new character.
• "Margaret Scully is back! ...Scully's mom has a prominent role in the beginning of this ep. Duffy Haskell from 'Per Manum' (the wonderful Jay Acovone)--also back, though let's just say I hope he has all his affairs in order. Billy Miles--he's here too. And he very much appears to have gone over to the dark side. The ep seems to open with a baby shower for Scully. The whole thing plays a little weird on paper--it's clearly her mom's idea, and Scully seems to feel awkward about the whole thing. The script makes a big point about everyone giving her things that are blue and pink, or two items (one blue, one pink). Scully either doesn't know the gender of the baby, or she isn't telling anyone. You could read the scene either way because there is some suggestion that the women at the baby shower are pressing her for information."
• "Mulder, Doggett and Skinner try to protect Scully and her unborn child when Billy Miles, an alien/human hybrid, starts a murderous rampage."

May 20, 2001 8X21: "Existence"

• Season finale. Written by Chris Carter, directed by Kim Manners. Mythology, part 2 of 2.
• This episode "will finally reveal the long-kept secrets behind Scully's mysterious pregnancy, including the paternity."
• Everyone from part 1 is in it (except Lizzy Gill and the deceased) plus Knowle Rohrer, Kersh, the Lone Gunmen, and a game warden.

Others

• Sequel to "Eve"--in the first season Chris Carter speculated that a sequel would be made in season 4 or 5. It hasn't happened....
• A Robert Williams wrote 2 episodes bought by 1013. Thanks to SpookyShanahan, we have summaries of both: "...One is about these Gypsies, and [Williams] originally planned for Mulder to be killed off, but they are not going to do that." He had an alternate ending killing Mulder which, obviously, 1013 isn't using. The other is about "this town where the roles are in reversal, like the men take on the women's habits and vice-versa for the women. It's funny, because Mulder starts taking bubble baths, and Scully gets addicted to sunflower seeds." Neither will be made.
• "The Banshee," written by Michael Scott. Was going to be made but not anymore.
• Jeffrey Bell wrote an episode about "aliens but in a surprising way": "According to Jeffrey Bell, a number of events have conspired to make him put the story down for the time being; those events include Mulder's alien abduction at the end of last season and the subsequent emphasis on aliens at the beginning of this season. 'The tone of the alien story was whimsical and there's consensus that Robert Patrick's character should be introduced through more traditional scary X-Files stories before we wander over into the land of humor or whimsy.'"
• CC on Darin Morgan: "We call him every year, several times a year. I think the last conversation someone had with him, he said that he had a ghost story he wanted to tell. He saw the movie The Sixth Sense and he said, 'Oh, they took my idea.' He went into a state of depression, or so he said." Oh well.

Season 9

• It's happening. Both Robert Patrick and GA will be in the whole season; Annabeth Gish will join the regular cast. DD won't be in it at all, and CC will either continue as showrunner or be an executive consultant, in which case Vince Gilligan and Frank Spotnitz will take over.

Spinoff

• Lone Gunmen Season 1 Spoilers

Beyond: The Sequel to the Movie

• The script has NOT been written yet. The movie is currently in the thinking stages. It could be filmed in Vancouver instead of L.A.
• It might not be mythology-centered: Chris Carter has hinted at both a prequel and a standalone--Fox execs may not want a mytharc.
• Rob Bowman probably won't direct; Chris Carter might want to.
• Mark Snow will write the music.
• From Fox: "The second installment of the feature film series is currently in the planning stages."
• From Chris Carter: "We have an idea. We want to do a standalone, just a really good scary movie, not something that's tied into the mythology of the show."
• The sequel will somehow be connected to the end of the show.
• CC is currently seriously planning the next movie: "I still think we're going to do a movie, probably two summers from now."
• FS hinted that the colonization--more specifically, the answer as to when it will occur--may be dealt with in the movie.
• CC: "So I can foresee trying to write a movie in the next year, year and a half, maybe two years, but it all depends on...what's going on with the TV series" (1/01).